Blood Beast puts readers back into modern day, about 1000 years after where Bec left off. It is another Grubbs Grady novel, so the ongoing storyline is the constant awareness that something inside Grubbs is changing…and it has absolutely nothing to do with the hormones of a 15 year old guy. The Grady family lycanthropic curse has claimed every member of the Grady bloodline before they’ve reached their prime. Grubbs has always been aware that his time is possibly limited, but he’s been in more immediate danger facing Lord Loss and his minions, making werewolfism seem like no big deal. The fear and possibility that he has the curse returns in Blood Beast — Grubbs is feeling something waking inside of him, something causing him to walk in his sleep, to have lucid dreams of carnage and the hosts of hell. He’s becoming an animal.Readers are held in Shan’s grip, kept in a state of constant pressure even though a good chunk of Blood Beast takes place on the earthly plain. We are treated to more details concerning Grubbs’ daily life at school — friends, girls, teachers, etc. For a while, one may even forget they’re reading about a guy who has witnessed more of hell’s fury than Sam and Dean Winchester (yes, I’m a Supernatural mark!). Worry not — in Blood Beast, exciting discoveries invite more death and a character from Slawter (book three). A figure from Grubbs’ and Dervish’s past comes to Carcery Vale whose motives will remain unclear to all of us. This volume’s end will have American readers contemplating paying the shipping cost to have book six, Demon Apocalypse, sent from across the pond.